Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act of 2008

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1277, I call up the bill (H.R. 5781) to provide that 8 of the 12 weeks of parental leave made available to a Federal employee shall be paid leave, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration.

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Mr. Speaker, today I rise in strong support of H.R. 5781, the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act of 2008, which was introduced by our colleague Congresswoman CAROLYN MALONEY on April 14, 2008. As Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia, I am proud to serve as an original cosponsor of this bill, along with 21 other Members of Congress.

H.R. 5781 takes an important step in improving the Federal Government's ability to recruit and retain a highly qualified workforce by providing paid parental leave to Federal and congressional employees for the birth, adoption or placement of a child for foster care, which is a benefit that is extended to most employees in the private sector as well as to government employees in other countries.

In considering H.R. 5781, the Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia marked up the bill on April 15, 2008, and favorably recommended the measure to the Full Committee on Oversight and Government Reform after adopting an amendment offered by Committee Chairman HENRY WAXMAN that would permit only 4 weeks of paid parental leave instead of the 8 weeks included in the bill as introduced. The full committee then held a markup on H.R. 5781 on April 16, 2008, and ordered the bill to be reported to the floor, as amended, by a roll call vote of 21-10.

During the consideration of H.R. 5781, I had asked that language be included in the bill directing the Government Accountability Office to study the feasibility of providing a disability insurance benefit to Federal employees who had to take time off to care for a spouse, child or parent that has a serious health condition or for a Federal employee that has a serious health condition that renders him or her unable to perform their job functions. While the manager's amendment that we will be discussing later on removes this provision from the bill, I am happy to report that at my request GAO has agreed to perform a study that will analyze disability insurance benefits that are currently being offered by States, local governments and the private sector.

The bill being considered today will allow all Federal and congressional employees to receive 4 weeks of paid leave taken under the Family and Medical Leave Act for the birth, adoption or placement of a foster child. As many of my colleagues are aware, the current FMLA statute provides Federal workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for the birth, adoption or placement of a foster child with an employee.

Mr. Speaker, the bill before us does nothing more than permit Federal employees to receive paid leave for 4 out of the 12 weeks if the leave is connected to the birth, adoption or placement of a foster child, and to use accrued sick or annual leave, if available, for the remaining 8 weeks. Let us be clear: This bill currently being considered does not provide Federal workers any additional time nor expand beyond the 12 weeks given under the current law.

The bill before us has also been strengthened by granting the Director of the Office of Personnel Management the authority to increase paid parental leave from 4 weeks to 8 weeks after considering a thorough cost and benefit analysis.

Parental leave is a pertinent concern around the world, and, unfortunately, America is lagging behind in offering paid leave for parents. The governments of 168 countries offer guaranteed paid leave to their female employees in connection with childbirth. Ninety-eight of these countries offer 14 or more weeks paid leave. Currently the Federal Government as an employer guarantees no paid leave.

Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I again reiterate my support for H.R. 5781, the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act of 2008, and urge my colleagues to join me in voting in favor of this measure.

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Mr. Speaker, it has been a rather spirited discussion and debate, and I'm reminded of the fact that we often compare public employees with private employees. And I know that we have amongst us Members who like the idea of downsizing government, of privatizing operations, of outsourcing activities. I believe that our public employees can in fact be the best that we help and allow them to become.

I believe that we can recruit the best and the brightest. But I also believe that if you want production, then you have to make sure that you are treating your employees fairly. Let's be clear. Federal employees are only able to accumulate a maximum of 30 days of annual leave, not an adequate amount of time for purposes of providing care for a newborn or adopted child.

Early in their careers when they're earning only 13 to 20 days per year, accumulating even 30 days is nearly impossible. Yet the early years of one's career usually coincide with the time that they decide to have children. And so it's the young, new employees who have not accumulated a great deal of time, who, in many instances, are either giving birth or adopting children.

So if we're going to be able to recruit, we have to try and make sure that we can attract.
We also need to be family friendly. Not only do we need this bill, but in reality, we really need childcare centers in all of our agencies. We need daycare programs so that people who have to work can know that there is the adequacy of opportunity to care for their children.

So providing this legislation the opportunity to live, providing individuals who are bearing children or adopting children the time that they need to bond with a newborn or to bond with an adopted child I think is not only a rational, sensible approach but I also want to extend commendations again to my colleague from New York, Representative CAROL MALONEY, who has led the fight on this issue for such a long time. And it is as a result of her tremendous efforts and the great work of our staffs that we are here this afternoon preparing to move another step towards making sure that we have the kind of workforce that our Federal Government needs. You can't lead where you don't go. And you can't teach what you don't know.

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I agree that we routinely ask the Government Accountability Office to make studies, to provide information, to give us the kind of information that we need, sometimes in much time, to make the most rational, logical and adequate decisions.

We simply ask in the legislation or indicate in the legislation that we've already asked them to do that and they have already agreed, and that's why we asked that the letter be included indicating their agreement.

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